Daily Record Interview - Aug 6, 2009

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/showbiz-news/celebrity-inte rviews/2009/08/06/gerard-butler-dirty-jokes-helped-land-me-role-in-rom -com-the-ugly-truth-86908-21575256/

Gerard Butler: Dirty jokes helped land me role in rom-com The Ugly Truth
Aug 6 2009 By Rick Fulton

IIT'S the question the world is asking - is Friends star Jennifer Aniston dating Scot Gerard Butler?

The Record have asked him twice in the last two months and still he's giving nothing away about his relationship with latest co-star Jennifer, with whom he is busy filming The Bounty.

This time we are straight to the point: "Are you with Jennifer?"

"Oh sure, and Cameron Diaz," replied Gerard sarcastically.

Whatever the truth Gerard, where did it all go right?

The 39-year old from Paisley lost his way in his twenties after his dad died and he was so out of control on drink he once ended up chained to eight other prisoners and did a stretch in Los Angeles County jail.

His party trick was smashing beer bottles over his head and he was once found hanging from the railings of a cruise ship singing Rod Stewart's Sailing.

Gerard graduated with an honours degree in law from Glasgow University and began a traineeship with an Edinburgh legal firm but was fired a week before he was due to qualify and, at 27, turned to acting.

In the past decade he's gone from film duds Dracula 2000 and Phantom of the Opera to become a new action hero as King Leonidas in 300 and a hunky lead in romcoms such as P.S. I Love You and The Ugly Truth, which is out tomorrow.

He also worked opposite Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Jodie Foster in Nim's Island and has been linked with Cameron Diaz, Naomi Campbell, Rosario Dawson and now Aniston.

Gerard admits he finds Scottish women "tough" but thinks that's a good thing.

His favourite type of girls seem to be from either Scotland, Ireland or Australia. He said: "They're very down to earth, they're very cool, they're more like the guys.

"They're fun and I like that. They're spunky and they have a lot of personality coming from Scotland."

Gerard is now taking over as Hollywood's top Scot from Ewan McGregor.

So when is a good age to stop partying and knuckle down? He said: "In Scotland most people are having fun in their early to mid twenties.

"They're like, now I'm working, now I'm making some money, now I'm really going to have fun.

"For me, it was the opposite I had ... and it wasn't even fun, you know, I mean it started off as fun, but it became a much more serious deeper issue that I was having."

In The Ugly Truth, Knocked Up star Katherine Heigl plays a romantically frustrated television producer looking for Mr Perfect while Gerard plays the chauvinistic Mike who decides to show her the best way of getting her ideal man.

Given Gerard seems to be in the news every day with rumours of a new girlfriend, it seems only right to ask his advice for getting the ladies.

Unfortunately he's not telling, but he can reveal the worst dating advice he ever got.

"Don't shake her hand, grab her butt and she'll appreciate that as a kind of joke."

How did it go? "I didn't try it," he laughed. "I'm not stupid."

But the man with a black book filled with the world's sexiest women doesn't always get it right.

He said: "There comes a point in a date where I just say ridiculous things and I get myself in a lot of trouble.

"I once went on a date where the girl went to the toilet and when she was gone I thought, well, I'll also go really quickly.

"She came out and thought I'd left and she went away. And this was before we all had mobile phones and so she never returned my calls.

"She had an answering machine in her house but I never heard from her again."

Gerard roars with laughter and you can tell he loves telling that story, which shows even the best ladies men can mess up.

"That's the whole point," he explained.

"I think one of the things that we're saying in this movie is that men will never really get women and women will never really get men and men will never be 100 per cent honest with women and neither will women to men.

"And maybe that's not a bad thing.

"And that's what is to be celebrated is our differences."

But despite all the talk the only girl in his life seems to be his pug dog Lolita, which is all good news for his worldwide army of female admirers.

In The Ugly Truth he also shows he's got the moves - dance moves, doing some salsa. He took lessons from Julianne Hough, of Dancing With The Stars, America's version of Strictly Come Dancing. He said: "I was still really nervous the day I had to do it thinking 'how am I going to do this?' But after about an hour we got there."

For the moment Gerard has managed the very hard balancing act of doing action movies like 300, Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla and next month's Gamer along with the romcoms like The Ugly Truth.

But he feels far from being a strange choice, his career is actually like him.

"There is a darker part of me, there is a more fun, lighter part, there is the sexy part, there is the driven part, depressing part... and I want to go in and explore all those areas," he explained.

"But I've got to say, I've done a lot of kind of deep probing roles and it was time to move away from that, so it was nice to do a couple of comedies.

"I feel more comfortable wherever I'm supposed to be. I can't honestly tell you that it's doing an action movie or that it's doing a comedy.

"There are things I love about each one, but I always have to move on and challenge myself and do some-thindifferent - it's just like me, there are a lot of different parts to me."

And it seems being a Scot is helping, not hindering, his up and up rising Hollywood star, as he joked his way to the part in The Ugly Truth.

He said: "I was doing an action movie with Lakeshore Entertainment, the guys who made this, and at night we would go to dinner and I would be like, 'Did you hear the one about this?' and they were like The Ugly Truth.

"I was renowned for telling filthy jokes, I always have been. I definitely get very involved in them and a lot of them are pretty ballsy. I can't help it. I am on set and I have to start, you know. It's a very Scottish thing - we love to tell jokes."

And what about playing that most famous of Scots in the long mooted Robert Burns movie. Has that bitten the dust? Not at all according to Gerard. "Eventually, but we're still working out the details."

For a man as in demand as Gerard they could take a while.

The Ugly Truth is out on Friday.